Oak Leaves, Spring 2012

oakleaves Spring 2012

Alumni in the

World Homecoming AFS Upfront Class Notes

THE AFS ANNUAL FUND

it’s for everyone PARTICIPATION MAKES IT WORK! Your gift towards our goal of: $450,000 65% parent participation and 25% alumni participation goes directly to work for students and teachers Learn more about the Annual Fund and opportunities for giving and volunteering at www.abingtonfriends.net

in this issue 2 10

Letter from Head of School

AFS Upfront

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Life at AFS:

Six Month Scrapbook

Oak Leaves is a publication of the AFS Development and Communications Offices.

Richard F. Nourie Debbie Stauffer Jon Harris Judy Hill Marji Burke Gabrielle Giddings Anna Stiegel Glass

Head of School Associate Head of School Assistant Head for Institutional Advancement Director of Communications, Editor Communications Assistant Assistant Director of Development Director of Alumni Affairs

Peapod Design

Publication Design

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AFS Alumni in The World

Classnotes

In Memoriam

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letter from the

head of school On the hill behind the house where I grew up, in Massachusetts, was a meadow that was filled with milkweed stalks. Each fall, I remember a spectacular period of days when the large seedpods would break open and the milkweed seeds on their silken parachutes would take off on the autumn breezes. After a spring and summer of hidden growth, the seeds were scattered to the winds, some landing nearby, others traveling great distances to start the cycle all over again.

Coming into an Upper School Meeting for Worship recently, where the students were packed in closely on the benches in that familiar space on a cool, early spring Wednesday, I couldn’t help but think of the metaphor of the milkweed seeds. I could see that the seniors on the facing bench would soon be scattering in their first independent steps into the world and I felt great affection, hope and excitement for them, thinking ahead to Commencement in the Grove.

As teachers and as a Friends school community we nurture seeds of potential in each of our students over many years of their development. We then have the wonderful satisfaction of seeing their lives come to

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2012

Head of School Rich Nourie met with AFS alumni from the class of 1960 to the class of 2011 at a recent gathering at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

fulfillment in ways that may have been only foreshadowed in their time at AFS. This issue of Oak Leaves brings into focus portraits of a range of AFS alumni who are creating, contributing, learning and building lives, careers and communities out in the wider world. In their values, sensibilities and accomplishments, they are inspiring examples for our current students and bring great satisfaction to their former teachers.

Somehow, this diverse group of adults reflects a common experience of education at Abington Friends School. We are a school that has grown dramatically over the past 50 years and yet there is a strong common ground that connects the generations at AFS.

“We seek to cultivate an inner vitality in our students...to power a life of personal fulfillment and meaningful contribution.”

At a recent alumni gathering in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts, I talked with graduates from the class of 1960 to the class of 2011 about continuity over time. I shared some research we had done during strategic planning last year, which included reading promotional materials about the school found in our archives from the 1890s to the 1970s. They were remarkably consistent.

AFS has always cultivated an intellectual community that prizes multiple perspectives, well-developed writing skills, diversity in many forms, connection to contemporary events and a focus on education that is inherently, personally meaningful rather than preparatory alone.

We all agreed that these threads, along with the Quaker values of profound respect for individuals, nurturing of a reflective, inner life and strong communal values, were the powerful elements shared across the generations.

growth for both teachers and students. I also believe, reinforced by the portraits in this edition of Oak Leaves, that we intend our students to live lives that are lit from within. We seek to cultivate and nurture an inner vitality in our students, a sense of authentic learning, reflection, values and drive to create that is meant to power a life of personal fulfillment and meaning contribution. I am grateful to our alumni who share their stories in this issue. Enjoy!

Rich Nourie Head of School

It has been common for me in my time at AFS to hold up the idea that “great schools are lit from within”. By this I mean that schools that have an intellectual and spiritual vitality at their center, one that is living and generative, create the most powerful context for genuine learning and

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life at AFS:

Halloween

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month scrapbook

Sukkot

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Each October, the all-school Halloween Parade puts smiles on the faces of students, teachers and parents alike, as students unleash their creativity and sense of humor.

Who needs expensive, pre-fabricated costumes when a little imagination and a few art supplies can take you where you want to go? This year’s parade featured Thing 1 and Thing 2 , the Mad Hatter, cowgirls by the score, super heroes, watermelons and more.

Families gathered behind the Muller cafeteria on October 16 for a potluck to celebrate the weeklong Jewish festival of Sukkot. The School’s Jewish Families Affinity Group planned the Sukkot potluck as an opportunity to both celebrate and educate. Students from Lower, Middle and Upper school were all involved in building the sukkah, the temporary shelter constructed for use during the festival.

october 4

LIFE AT AFS : SIX MONTH SCRAPBOOK

Homecoming

More than 90 alums, from the Class of 1969 through 2011, returned to campus for Homecoming Day on November 23, excited to greet old friends and former teachers over breakfast, share stories and laughs, attend Meeting for Worship and compete in a student/faculty/alumni soccer match. During Meeting, many alums paid tribute to the time and space devoted at AFS to identity development and to the arts of listening and reflection. “AFS taught me how to listen, how to really look into a person and truly see who they are and understand how they see the world," said one alum.

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Transition Day » Although learning to live in the moment is an important stress management skill, sometimes it is exciting to think ahead!

That’s exactly what AFS eighth graders had the opportunity to do on 8th-9th Transition Day in early October. The day was an opportunity for eighth graders to tour the Upper School, attend classes, meet teachers and chat with Upper School students about their questions or concerns over a pizza lunch.

november

Our Town « Staging Thornton Wilder’s classic play in the Meetinghouse lent the production a unique atmosphere. With a simple set of just a few chairs and a couple of tables, the play was magical, creating a spellbinding illusion of small town life in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire.

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Consortium Gift Drive » The joy was palpable throughout Upper School in mid-December, as students gathered in their advisories to sort and wrap gifts for special needs children attending the Consortium Early Intervention Program in West Philadelphia. The students coordinated a division-wide gift drive, distributing wish lists for each of the 50 or so children at the Consortium. Director Linda Wise accepted more than 200 festively wrapped packages when she visited AFS on December 14.

Winterfest « AFS ushered in the winter holidays and celebrated its rich cultural diversity during Winterfest, the joyous all-school celebration held each December in the Hallowell Gym. Students from every division helped decorate Kwanza and Hanukah tables and a Christmas tree, sang yuletide favorites and traditional cultural songs and recited in unison the AFS “holiday poem.” Members of the class of 2012 stood off to the sides raising signs to emphasize key words and phrases.

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Alumni Basketball » A spirited group of alumni and current parents played in the 10th Annual Alumni Basketball Game on Saturday, January 7.

The competitive game was exciting to watch, and many alumni came out to cheer on their former classmates.

MLK day of Service »

Spirit Day

»

Greek Fest, a fifth grade tradition, is the culmination of an intensive unit of study on Greek mythology and features an Olympics event, a feast and student-created skits. After participating in discus throwing, baton races and hurdle jumping, students settled in for a delicious meal of stuffed grape leaves, spanakopita, feta cheese, kebabs and hummus. Afterwards, the students drew laughs and cheers from their families and other lower school students with their witty tales of intrigue, romance and warfare.

Chinese New Year

Third grade students celebrated the end of Chinese New Year with music, story telling and shadow puppet plays.

Roughly 60 after-school students in grades 1 - 5 settled into the "Kangaroo Pouch,” a special, reserved section of the Hallowell Gym, to cheer on the AFS Varsity Girl's Basketball team on Spirit Day. Before heading to the game, the students learned proper fan etiquette and some basic rules of the game.

They also created posters and cheers with the help of the AFS Upper School Pep Squad. The event exposed Lower Schoolers to the joys of team athletics and helped to build cross-divisional relationships as well.

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LIFE AT AFS : SIX MONTH SCRAPBOOK

»

Greek Fest

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More than 400 people gathered at AFS on Monday, January 16, for a morning of community building and service in celebration of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Day of Service began in the Meetinghouse with a program that included reflection, poetry and song. From there, volunteers traveled to the Lower School and Early Childhood buildings to begin work.

Together, they baked approximately 300 cookies, cooked 288 Aid for Friends meals, assembled 150 hygiene kits, crafted 70 hats and scarves, baked 20 casseroles and made 25 teddy bears.

Talent Show

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Doug Blonsky, President of the Central Park Conservancy, presented this year’s Rudin Lecture on February 9, to a full house of Upper School students, faculty, alumni and other interested guests. Fifth grade ambassadors met with Blonsky to share dioramas their grade members had created to depict their vision for the Lower School nature playground, part of the AFS Outside initiative. Susan Rudin ’57 and six other members of her class also toured the playground site and viewed the architect’s plans.

On a snowy February night, some of our talented faculty, staff, parents and Meeting members gathered in the cafeteria to share their musical and literary talents. All of the merriment was in support of the Post Prom.

Blood Drive

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Rudin Lecture

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february

Eighty eight individuals (including 60 students) collectively contributed an impressive 60 pints of blood during the 2012 Abington Friends School Blood Drive. The event took place February 14, in the Faulkner Library, and the amount collected was expected to assist up to 180 individuals in need. To brighten the surroundings, Council members created a large banner that read: “AFS Blood Drive: Let the Love Flow!” Students also distracted nervous donors by reading aloud to them from children’s picture books.

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afs upfront Manstein Family Funds Upgrade of Wrestling Room Friends of the AFS community, including students, teachers and parents and alumni, gathered in the Triangle Gym on January 17 for a reception to celebrate a recent gift from AFS parents Carl and Marla Manstein.

The gift was in memory of Marla Manstein's parents and brother, and it funded the dedication of the wrestling room in the Triangle building and facility improvements to the room. The first upgrade was a new score board.

In the photo are: Carl and Marla Manstein, with children Ely ’12, Max ’08 and Arielle Manstein.

Two AFS Seniors Named National Merit Finalists AFS seniors Elizabeth Gurin and Zach Atkins (pictured with their advisor, Upper School Classics Teacher Matt Slagter) have been named National Merit Finalists.

Established in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that conducts annual competitions for recognition and college scholarships. Its goals are to identify and honor academically talented U.S. high school students; to stimulate increased support for their education; and to provide efficient and effective scholarship program management for organizations that wish to sponsor college undergraduate scholarships. Since its founding in 1955, NMSC has provided over 350,000 scholarships worth more than $1.4 billion.

“Elizabeth and Zach are both extremely capable, thoughtful, hardworking, and conscientious students, and it has been a real pleasure to be their advisor,” says Matt, who adds that it came as no surprise to him that they had received the recognition.

“Becoming a National Merit Finalist adds one more laurel to the already exemplary academic careers of each of these students.”

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2012

AFS Well Represented at National People of Color Conference On December 1-2, Philadelphia hosted The National Association of Independent Schools People of Color Conference (PoCC) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Four thousand students and adults from across the country attended, and Abington Friends School faculty and students were well represented.

AFS Lower School Director Crissy Cáceres co-chaired the event; our Choral Group (featuring students in grades 4-12) performed songs in English, Zulu, Liberian and French during the opening ceremony; many AFS faculty and staff members had the opportunity to attend the conference; and Head of School Rich Nourie, along with 10 other faculty or former faculty members, presented workshops.

In a separate, nearby location, 20 Upper School students also had the opportunity to attend the closed-door, two-day Student

Diversity Leadership Conference along with AFS Director of Diversity and Inclusion Toni Graves Williamson.

One of the PoCC workshops, entitled Courageous Conversations: Using Literacy to Explore Race and Identity, featured several of our fifth and sixth grade students who, together with their teacher Jane McVeighSchultz (and former teacher, Dave Bass), shared how they have managed to create a safe place for conversations about race in their classrooms.

“As adults, Dave and I set the stage for the workshop,” says Jane. “We handled the introductions and set up the videos, but our students quickly took over. Audience members addressed all of their questions to the students, and we simply stepped off to the side, which was exactly what we wanted to see happen.”

“Everyone wanted to know what our program was like and how it got started,” says sixth grader Cameron Hodges. “We told them that we start talking about race and identity in first or second grade. It usually takes place in English class.”

“We wanted to say that we really have to be careful about stereotyping,” says fifth grader Josiah Campbell. “I see it all of the time in movies. If you don’t talk to other people and get to know them, you’re going to make a judgment about them based only on what you see on the outside, and that’s not right.

We make time to talk in our classroom.”

“This experience was extraordinary for me,” says Jane. “The adults were astonished by how open, honest and articulate our 10 and 11 year olds are. This experience was one of the highlights of my life.”

Many AFS presenters and PoCC attendees were approached by faculty and administrators from other schools that were impressed with the work that AFS has been doing in the area of race and identity.

“This kind of work is not linear and can be messy and confusing and of course we haven’t figured everything out, but we are well into the process of discovery, development and support on the issues of diversity and inclusion,” says Catalina Rios, Lower School and Sixth Grade Spanish teacher.

While PoCC was unfolding in center city on December 2, AFS hosted its own on-campus Professional Development In-Service Day focused on race and identity. Area educators were invited to attend. Guest speakers included Peggy McIntosh, PhD. of the Wellesley Centers for Women and Rosetta Lee of the Seattle Girls School.

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world W alumni in the

hen we decided to devote an entire issue of Oak Leaves to alumni following their passions in a variety of fields, we knew we were setting ourselves up for a challenging task.

Alumni from AFS are making their mark all over the United States and beyond, in every field imaginable, from veterinary science to financial services to farming. The couple of dozen men and women we chose to focus on for this issue came to our attention as people who have pursued their interests with gusto and tenacity. We were delighted to get to know them better. And we know we could repeat the format for this issue twice a year for decades without ever running out of fascinating alumni to interview.

Thank you, AFS alums, for making our job so interesting, and infinite!

Got an interesting story?

Get in touch with us at alumni@abingtonfriends.net

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2012

alumni in:

sustainability

ABE KRUGER ’00 Green Building Consultant Atlanta

Atlanta is not known as a pioneer in green building. It’s known more for its sprawl and bad urban planning, says Abe Kruger, a green building consultant who started his own business in the city three years ago.

“What better place to be than a place that’s the model of what not to do?” says Abe, though energy efficiency, he notes, is gaining traction in the city, and he is happy to be playing a role by providing green building certifications, developing curricula for local colleges and consulting with builders, contractors and homeowners. This year, with co-author Carl Seville, he wrote the first textbook focusing on residential green building.

As the only fulltime employee in his business, the Kruger Sustainability Group, Abe wears many hats. But that, he says, is what makes his job fun: “One week I’ll be developing a semester long green building course for a technical college in South Carolina, the next I’ll be doing work with a utilities energy rebate program.” He also spends plenty of time on his hands and knees in attics and crawl spaces, figuring out the best ways to make a home energy efficient.

People often assume Abe’s background is in engineering. In fact, he was a liberal arts student at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he double majored in history and environmental studies. While at Oberlin, he was inspired by the opening on campus of the new environmental studies building designed by sustainable architecture guru William McDonough. A showcase of how to build in tune with the environment, the building embodies passive solar principles, capturing free heat in the winter and keeping it out in the summer. Designed as a teaching tool, the building also incorporates solar panels, native species landscaping and onsite wastewater treatment.

After graduating from Oberlin, Abe moved directly to Atlanta, where he got a fellowship with the South Face Energy Institute, finding his niche in contractor and homeowner

education. After a short stint working for a contractor in Charlotte, Abe returned to Atlanta and soon after began his own company.

Abe loves his adopted city. “It’s really a fun town,” he says. “From an urban design standpoint it’s got some issues, but because it’s the capital and the planning was really done without a plan, lots of people are discovering it and working to improve it. And it’s fun when you go to a dinner party or a bar and meet people getting, say, a PhD in air quality science from Georgia Tech or an MBA from the Goezueta School of Business at Emory University.”

Of all the things he learned at AFS, which he entered as a fifth grader coming from Oak Lane Day School, Abe says the most important was the ability to think critically and analytically about an issue. He mastered the art of the persuasive essay so well, he says, that when he wrote an essay about vegetarianism for an Upper School English class, he was so convinced by his argument that he stopped eating meat.

As an academically strong and “probably slightly nerdy” student, Abe enjoyed the challenges of technical theatre and he and his friends can take credit for introducing ultimate Frisbee to the school. Since it was a club at that time, rather than an official sport that counted toward the athletic requirement, Abe and his friends felt free to express themselves with a “uniform” of kilts and spray painted shirts. Competing in a tournament, Abe remembers getting “destroyed,” but winning the spirit award. “We were there to have fun. Look, we were in kilts!”

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alumni in:

sustainability

DAVID MILDENBERG ’99 Wilderness Guide and Educator

David Mildenberg can trace his passion for the outdoors to an English class he took in Upper School with Renie Campbell. “We were reading Thoreau’s Walden,” he says, “and it just spoke to me and took me into a different realm intellectually.”

Inspired by Thoreau, David decided to embark on an ambitious backpacking trip for his senior independent project. That was his first camping experience, and it was transformative, he says. With two friends he hiked and camped for three weeks in the Adirondacks and Catskills, reading poetry and philosophy as they hiked. “I was totally out of my comfort zone,” he says, “and it was an awesome, life changing experience.”

Now, David, who lives in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia, is launching his own

Philadelphia

kayaking expedition he undertook in Patagonia, Chile while taking a year out from St. John’s College in Annapolis. Returning the next year to St. John’s satellite Santa Fe campus, David deepened his outdoor competence level, becoming a wilderness first responder and a Leave no Trace Master

“The whole thing about this outdoor experience I’ve had and my experience with AFS is that there’s a synergy there. You’re allowed to get lost at AFS and then find yourself again. Being lost requires you to mature, to find and develop leadership skills and followership skills, which are equally important and crucial to the Quaker tradition.” outdoor venture, Valley to Summit, which will provide guided wilderness adventures and environmental awareness workshops for schools and the general public. “We’re going to offer ultimate adventure trips for folks, with white-water rafting, back country hiking and rock climbing for folks who want to get more of a taste of nature.”

Between SIP and Valley to Summit David honed his own outdoor skills on trips including a mountaineering and sea

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Educator through the National Outdoor Leadership School. Being involved with a search and rescue team gave David a clearer understanding of risk management, teamwork and patience, as well as tolerance for the unexpected.

“The whole thing about this outdoor experience I’ve had and my experience with AFS is that there’s a synergy there. You’re allowed to get lost at AFS and then find yourself again. Being lost requires you to

mature, to find and develop leadership skills and followership skills, which are equally important and crucial to the Quaker tradition.”

Ideally, he says, he would have gone straight from the Southwest to Valley to Summit, but, “I still had in me an itch for civil rights that began at AFS, and I wanted to practice law with my brother.”

After graduating from law school, David passed the bar in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and went to work as an associate attorney at Mildenberg Law Firm in Center City.

David’s work as an attorney focuses on civil rights, including employment discrimination and defending clients against predatory lenders in mortgage foreclose cases. The whole mission, he says, is to help people, and he connects that back to his AFS experience, too, where he was exposed to the works of great civil rights leaders and became involved with the student PRIDE group as well as student government.

“I will always remain an attorney,” he says. “It’s important that I continue to advocate for people whose civil rights have been violated. It’s equally important for people to immerse themselves in the wilderness and to experience what nature has to offer.”

alumni in:

music Violinist Maureen Nelson has what she calls an “itinerant lifestyle.” When she’s not working with her string quartet Enso in New York City, she’s living in Houston, where her husband, a clarinetist, teaches at Rice University.

And when she’s in neither of those places, she’s traveling around the world doing concerts and touring.

MAUREEN NELSON ’91 Violinist New York City and Houston

guitar and flipping it around under my chin like a violin.” Though neither of her parents is musical, they both knew how to train— her father is a doctor and her mother was a taekwondo champion—and that, says Maureen is where the work ethic came from.

“It’s never boring,” says Maureen, who met the other founding members of Enso while she was pursuing her graduate degree in music at Yale University. As well as performing throughout Europe, Asia and South America, Enso has had success in the recording studio, winning a Grammy nomination for their 2010 release of the quartets of Ginastera. This summer the quartet will be recording works

by Puccini, Verdi and Richard Strauss. A 10-concert tour of New Zealand is also on the calendar, as well as the usual round of summer festivals and concerts.

As fast paced as Maureen’s life is now, she was never one to dawdle. Arriving at AFS in seventh grade, Maureen was already an accomplished pianist and violin player. Her mother, she says, had wanted her to play classical guitar, “but I kept taking the little

AFS, she says, was supportive and accommodating of her musical talent, though the balancing act was still tough.

“The thing about music when you pursue it like I did is that it’s kind of all consuming,” she says. “It’s like becoming an athlete. Your time is taken up by it. It was extremely hard.

I would come home from school and either have a lesson or practice for four hours.

By that time it would be about 11 p.m. and I still had to do my homework.” Because so much of her time outside of school was taken up with music, Maureen was not part of the music program at AFS, other than accompanying students on the piano occasionally and playing at holiday concerts.

Instead, when it came time to choose electives, she opted for the visual arts, another creative outlet she enjoyed tremendously.

In her junior year, Maureen was accepted into the highly selective Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. So that she could still graduate from high school, AFS figured out a way for her to consolidate most of her classes into one day and do the rest of them by credit. It was a daunting time for Maureen, though, since most of her fellow Curtis students were much more experienced in the musical world and many already had management and record deals.

Being a professional musician is an extremely intense lifestyle, says Maureen, but she loves it. “There’s nothing like having a fantastic performance. I could even just be playing Bach to myself and thinking, ‘This is amazing!’ I can’t believe I’ve gotten to this level and get to play with such good friends.”

Getting to this point, though, requires more than just talent, says Maureen. “You have to have nerves of steel. I’ve heard even super famous musicians say, ‘I’m so nervous I want to die, I never want to do this again.’

Eschenbach said when he performs piano he just feels like a bowl of jelly. But the satisfaction afterwards makes it all worth it.”

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alumni in:

music

DAVID AHL ’01 Music Producer

There’s really no such thing as a typical day for Dave Ahl, owner of Stepwise Sound, a music and sound production company in Brooklyn, NY.

Brooklyn

Stepwise has worked with artists from around the world including Brazilian guitarist Allison Carvalho, afro-funk group Ikebe Shakedow, indie-pop visionary Eight Two and even Stephen Colbert.

Recently Stepwise has gotten a lot of work writing and producing music for commercials including Amazon, United Airlines and Maxwell House.

“Commercial work is really interesting to me,” says Dave, “because the entire music creation process—from composition, to production, to mixing—can be compressed into a single day and a 30-second song.”

Asked to submit a song for a national hotel commercial, Dave looked at the video for the TV spot then wrote the music quickly and heightened the emotion by adding layers of percussion to plucked string parts that were playing the melody. “I played piano and the bass parts on the keyboard and tapped out the drums. I sang the vocals on the chorus and recorded handclaps to make it more exciting.”

Another interesting recent project involved working on the soundtrack of a Hong Kong movie called “14 Blades.” Dave was hired to find and record Middle-Eastern singers in New York for a movie from the other side of the world. “We communicated through different languages and time zones,” says Dave, “emailing every day.”

Dave’s guiding principle is to take on the most challenging projects he can. “If it’s different or hard, I want to do it. If I get an opportunity to make a Brazilian classical guitar album, I want to do it. If I’m asked to produce an African hip-hop track in French, I’m excited to bring it to life. I think I hear

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“I am who I am today because of the AFS community and all of the love and support I received from all of my teachers there.” the world differently because of the wide range of material I’ve worked on.”

Dave studied music throughout his time at AFS, where he began in the 1st grade. Chris Buzby, he says, gave him essential band and music instruction through middle and high school. In Chris’s computer music lab he learned how to sequence programs and arrange music. Chris recorded Dave’s first album, “Last Stop: Underground” at AFS and put him in touch with his friend Brett Kull, with whom Dave did his senior project.

At Wesleyan, where Dave was a music and government double major, he worked in the university’s recording studios and also started his own studio recording bands at Wesleyan, including the very successful MGMT. During his senior year at Wesleyan, he and two friends produced an all-charity album

called “ASAP: the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project.” The album hit number one on the iTunes World Music charts in US and Europe and raised over $140,000 for humanitarian aid in Darfur.

In high school Dave was interested in politics, social justice, music and computers.

“In a lot of ways, music production makes a lot of sense for me as a career because here I am making music with computers.” A member of the jazz band, he also played music outside of school, spending summers at University of the Arts and Berklee College of Music.

“My career as a music producer and engineer stems directly from the opportunities I received at AFS,” concludes Dave. “In a larger sense, morally and spiritually I am who I am today because of the AFS community and all of the love and support I received from all of my teachers there.”

alumni in:

science Jeff Kahn spends his days thinking about robotic fishes. A PhD candidate in the mechanical engineering program at Drexel University, Jeff and his team are trying to understand how fish use their senses while swimming.

Using robotic fish, or rather robotic fish fins equipped with sensors, gives them the ability to repeat trials over and over with the same experimental conditions. “It would take years longer observing an actual fish,” says Jeff.

“We can make a robot fin flap identically hundreds of times in a row.” The team is working in tandem with a biology lab at Harvard that is studying the fish themselves, monitoring their nerve and muscle activity.

Jeff, a graduate of Swarthmore College, relishes the challenge of designing systems and experiments to better understand fish behavior. So many questions remain, he says about why fish swim the way they do. How do fish use their fins to swim? How does a fish change its swimming patterns? “We’re also discovering nerves along fish fins and we have no idea what they do,” says Jeff.

“So engineers get to ask, ‘What could those nerves be sensing?’ One of the things we thought is that the fish is sensing some sort of bending. So what I do is using robotics I program this fin to flap and maneuver the way a fish does and I take sensory data from the robot. Then we analyze the data and get information about it.”

And why is this important? “Fins do very complex things,” says Jeff. “I think it’s important for us as humans to understand how other animals move in their environments. We’re a highly technical society and we don’t do ocean navigation very well because we’re not underwater animals. This is an opportunity to understand underwater vertebrates better.”

Jeff sees many potential applications for the research, including coming up with better alternatives to propellers. “Most of our

JEFF KAHN ’06 Robotics Engineer Drexel University, Philadelphia

systems for moving underwater are just propellers, and they become easily damaged. Propellers don’t do well in coastal environments and rivers and fish do very well, so learning about more complex ways of maneuvering could be very valuable.”

Though Jeff works in a lab every day, he sees himself as just as much a writer as a scientist. In fact, when he graduated from AFS he thought he wanted to write professionally. Starting out at Cornell as a prospective English major, Jeff realized that there was something missing. At AFS, in addition to flourishing in Mary Lynn Ellis’s English classes he had enjoyed solving problems with Jordan Burkey in physics class and thinking critically about calculus with math teacher Niall Hood. He missed thinking like that. A transfer to Swarthmore made sense because there he was able to feed both sides of his brain simultaneously. “I could write creatively and engineer at the same time.”

Jeff still writes fiction for two hours every Sunday and says he will always be grateful to Mary Lynn. “She engendered trust, and the space she created, where we could share our feelings and put really personal stuff out there, was incredible. That’s a space I return to when I write fiction.”

Writing is important in the lab, too, says Jeff. “You have to do so much writing to be successful and in order to communicate to people who want to fund research you have to be able to write and present, to communicate.”

Part of the writing experience for Jeff at AFS was about taking risks and trying new things.

One of his hobbies that reflects that, he says, is cooking. “It’s nice when you’re a robotics engineer to spend time cooking because the results are a lot faster. You can experiment with something and find out right away if it works.”

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alumni in:

science EMILY PIERSON ’05 Fulbright Scholarship Recipient Patagonia, Chile

Science and the outdoors run in Emily Pierson’s family. After all, her father, Jim Pierson, has been a fixture in the AFS Science Department for 18 years. But Emily’s interest in science, and conservation in particular, is not just inherited; it’s also deeply personal.

“The reason I care about the environment and protecting places that are still wild is because I enjoy them and I play in them,” she says. “I figure you care more about the things you understand and have a personal stake in.”

Emily’s passion for ecology led her most recently to live in Coyhaique in Southern Chile for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship.

While there, Emily worked with two separate organizations, a guide school and a research center focused on the natural sciences. Her

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role was to link the two organizations and put together trips where they would work together. One collaboration she masterminded was a six-day river trip from the border with Argentina to the ocean. A geologist and social historian accompanied the group. For the research center, says Emily, it was a great opportunity to have data collection from rural sites, with Emily taking macro invertebrate samples and the geologist collecting rock samples.

Meanwhile, the guide school students were learning about water safety, geology, river ecology and social history. “The guide school students got a science background,” says Emily, “and the research center got access to a whole new data set.”

kayaking and has also worked with Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability School in the Pacific Northwest.

Though she says she was more than ready to leave by the time she graduated from AFS, she now realizes, “it set me up well for basically everything.” As well as teaching her to question everything “instead of just going through the motions of getting a high school diploma,” her time at AFS instilled in her a sense of community. “Most of the places I’ve gone, and enjoyed, it’s been because I was a member of a community. In Chile it was hard living there with little heat and difficult conditions, but everyone had each other’s back. That feeling started for me at AFS.”

This was by no means Emily’s first adventure. A University of Pittsburgh graduate, Emily has completed programs with the National Outdoor Leadership School in rock climbing and white water

Emily is considering going to graduate school for applied ecology. The applied part is important. “I don’t want to sit in an office and do research on something that’s not useful,” she says.

alumni in:

sports A Catholic school student until he came to AFS in the middle of his sophomore year, Jesse Balcer was struck immediately by three things: There were no locks on the lockers, students left their bags in the hallways and teachers were known by their first names. “And just the overall friendliness of the community stood out,” says Jesse, who transferred to AFS because he wanted to play sports.

A good athlete who somehow never made the team, Jesse arrived at AFS eager to play.

And play he did. He was on the first baseball team that won the FSL championship, in 1990, and he also played soccer and basketball for the School. “The sports were great,” he says, “and I met some unbelievable friends, which I think is what athletics is all about.”

A dozen years later, when Jesse became Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Chestnut Hill Academy, it was Coach Chadwin’s example he kept in mind. He called him often, too, to ask for advice. “And he gave great advice,” says Jesse, “Which I still use to this day.”

It wasn’t all about sports for Jesse at AFS, though. Something he says he would never have done at his previous school was to join the choir and become a member of the chamber singers. “Here,” he says, “It was cool for an athlete to be in the choir.”

Jesse chose Philadelphia University for college mainly because his best friend Dave Fields ’91 (aka Chewy) was a freshman there. A psych major, he made the basketball team as a walk-on and played baseball for four years. He ended up being captain of the basketball team and starting frequently in his senior year. “I was a good player,” he says. “Not great, like Chewy, but tough. I played hard.”

After almost a decade of sporadic coaching work and a fulltime job as a juvenile

JESSE BALCER ’92 Head Basketball Coach Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia

“Kids come in and they grow so much here. I compare that a lot to AFS. It’s pretty neat how everything has come full circle.” probation officer for sex offenders, Jesse landed the head coaching job at Chestnut Hill College, which was turning co-ed and starting a men’s basketball team.

Jesse loves his job. “I love waking up on game day and having that feeling in the pit of my stomach,” he says. “I love the relationships with the kids. So much that goes into coaching has to do with teaching kids how to make decisions in their lives.

You get to meet great kids and watch them

grow. I always say the second best thing to being called Dad is being called Coach.”

Jesse is called Dad by three children, Isabella, 14, Jesse Jr., 11, and Angelina, 7. His wife, Amy, is a guidance counselor at Mount St. Joe’s. Chestnut Hill College has an amazing sense of community; “just like AFS” says Jesse, “and the feeling of safety there is similar to AFs, too. Kids come in and they grow so much here. I compare that a lot to AFS. It’s pretty neat how everything has come full circle.”

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alumni in:

sports RYAN SAMSON ’07 Sports Photographer Philadelphia

The photography bug bit Ryan in his sophomore year of high school when he took a photography class to fulfill his arts requirement. He picked up the techniques quickly and enjoyed spending time in the darkroom listening to music with his friends.

His teacher, Donna Russo, became a trusted mentor and advisor. “I’ll still go to her and show her what I did and see what she thinks,” he says.

Ryan Sansom had always loved sports but never particularly excelled at them. Tired of not being on the varsity level with his friends at AFS, he decided, “I’m not going to do this anymore, I’m just going to take photos.” Using his father’s camera, he did just that, and the response he got was resoundingly positive. “I really enjoyed helping out my friends and having my school appreciate what I did,” says Ryan, who now works as a professional sports photographer in Philadelphia.

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In college, Ryan, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh last year, bolstered his photography skills by working for the student newspaper. He recalls how covering the sporting events was the most highly prized assignment, and to be in the running you had to be willing to shoot whatever else was needed. “I was good at sucking up to my bosses and taking things nobody else wanted to take,” says Ryan. Shooting the Backyard Brawl and other Pitt sporting traditions deepened Ryan’s experience and taught him much of what he needed to know to enter the arena of professional sports photography.“There’s nothing out there in photography like it,” says Ryan of his chosen

specialty. “I’m a personable person but it’s tough for me to say, ‘Move your head a little to your left.’ In sports, the players aren’t paying attention to me. You get great reactions and great action.” The company Ryan photographs for has a contract with the Philadelphia Union soccer team, which, in combination with high school sports, some portraits and magazine work, keeps Ryan busy.

AFS, says Ryan, taught him to always ask for help and use the resources around him.

Meeting with Brian Cassady three times a week outside of class is what got him through high school Spanish, he says, and knowing how to advocate for himself put him in a good position for college. Today he still prefers to be upfront when something is not working, rather than saying afterward, “I don’t know why it didn’t work.”

Looking to the future, Ryan says nothing could make him happier than taking photographs for the rest of his life and getting to travel. “I could be out in the freezing cold and I wouldn’t care. I would never trade it for sitting in an office all day.”

BEN LIVINGSTON ’08

ADAM LEFKOE ’04

Radio Station Sports Director

Sports Anchor

University of Pittsburgh

Louisville, KY

“If you’re not having fun how can you expect listeners to have fun?” asks Ben Livingston, a junior at the University of Pittsburgh and the sports director of its student radio station 92.1 WPTS. “The way to do it right,” he says, “is to enjoy yourself and be excited to go into work every day.”

When Adam Lefkoe traveled to games with the AFS Varsity basketball team, he would often joke around and “fake broadcast” the action. “You’re kind of good at that!” said his friends. Today, he’s even better. Adam is currently the sports anchor for WHAS TV in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as hosting his own radio show.

As well as working at the student station, Ben also produces radio shows at least twice a week at 93.7 The Fan, a CBS radio station in Pittsburgh. Add to that his double major in English writing and economics statistics, and Ben is a busy man.

At the student station Ben is in charge of sports programming, covering all Pitt athletics. When he’s not assigning regular shows, he’s sending reporters on the road, coming up with games for the station and mentoring the station’s hosts. Over at 93.7 The Fan, Ben can be found on Thursday and Friday nights behind the glass running the control board, “making sure the commercials play so we don’t lose thousands of dollars,” advising hosts and handling technical issues as they arise.

Ben is well aware of the stereotype of sports talk—the “Should Pete Rose be in the Hall of Fame?” kind of chat—but he tries to find a way to spice the show up, he says, and do something people will enjoy by being unique and different. “It’s very much about making sure the host is ready for the show,” he says. “You don’t want to get them in a bad mood. If they’re touchy about a certain subject, you don’t want to push it. You just need to give them the tools they need to do well.”

Being captain of the Varsity wrestling team at AFS helped prepare Ben for his current role, he says. “It’s very hard when you’re in charge of a student organization to motivate people, so I think being in a situation like that and being in a place that encourages you to let people do their own thing and helps them generate their own interests has really helped a lot.”

One teacher in particular at AFS helped Ben pursue his interests, and that was Upper School English Teacher Kristine Long. “She noticed a passion I had but was shy about,” he says, “and she encouraged me to pursue it.” By his senior year, Ben was a fixture on Smith Field, calling out play by plays and keeping the crowd entertained at Varsity softball games. “Having someone reach out to me and really encourage me and make the dream happen was unbelievably big for me.”

“I anchor and go out in the field and do reports,” says Adam. “I’m working constantly, but it’s enjoyable for me because I love telling stories. I think that part is sometimes lost in sports journalism. I write everything myself and feel a lot of ownership.”

Adam credits AFS, and Upper School English Teacher Don Kaplan in particular, with honing his ability to write. “It’s what’s most important in my profession, and at AFS I really learned how to write. That’s helped me a lot.”

Coming to AFS in tenth grade, from public school, Adam was struck by the warmth of the community. Determined to be open to everything, Adam, who describes himself as “definitely a clown” in high school, also took pride in his work. He remembers Jordan Burkey’s physics class being the first place where he wasn’t afraid to say he was smart.

In his senior year Adam played Varsity basketball alongside such notable alums as Jason Love, Andrew Jones and Aaron Cohen.

Excited about the idea of a career in sports broadcasting, Adam applied to the Si Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. Though he didn’t make the cut initially, he did get into Syracuse, and after a hard-working freshman year was admitted to Newhouse.

After a post college stint at a rural TV station in Hastings, Nebraska, Adam felt ready for anything. “When you work at a small station you do everything. I was lead reporter, lead fill-in anchor, sometimes even the news director.”

After picking up several awards and putting together an impressive highlight reel, Adam got the job in Louisville, which he describes as an incredible sports town. “You’ve got the Kentucky Derby. It’s one of the birthplaces of boxing. And it’s a city that really cares about sports and about the people that cover sports.” That’s not to say he won’t try to come back to Philadelphia after his contract is up in a year and a half. “I’m definitely thinking that might be a possibility,” says the diehard Phillies and Eagles fan.

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alumni in:

sports

literature

ANDREW MASON ’07 Golfer Temple University, Philadelphia

It’s been quite a year for golfer Andrew Mason. As well as winning the Philadelphia Open Golf Tournament, he took the State Amateur prize and qualified for the US Amateur Tournament. He also won the Patterson Cup and was named Player of the Year in Philadelphia. As if that wasn’t enough, he made the academic all-conference team at Temple University, where he will graduate in May with a double major in real estate and finance.

“It’s tough to win golf tournaments, no matter what,” says Andrew, “You almost always lose, so it’s nice to win. This has been by far my best year. I worked really hard in the winter on my putting and stuff like that and I got a little smarter and more mature.” Golf, says Andrew, is the ultimate game of strategy. Like chess, but with more walking. “In golf you get brutally penalized for poor strategy.”

Andrew, an AFS lifer, learned the game from a friend a year or two older than him. “I asked if I could go and play with him and I just kind of lived at the golf course. My parents would

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drop me off at the Abington Club at 7 a.m. and pick me up at 8 p.m.” By 8th grade Andrew was playing for the Upper School Varsity golf team with Coach John Savage helping him improve his game.

A golf scholarship to Temple followed and Andrew learned how to balance his course load with three to four hours of golf a day, during the golf season. In the winter, he hits balls at Temple’s indoor range in Conshohocken. It has been at Temple, Andrew says that he has ramped up his mental game, whereas in high school he was focused on mastering the fundamentals and improving his golf swing.

A member of Huntingdon Valley Golf Club, Andrew still sees Coach Savage every once in a while. “He’s unbelievable,” says Andrew. “He really helped me along.”

For the future, Andrew stays he’s still weighing whether to turn pro. Right now, he is working for a startup asset management company. In the business world, he notes, there’s a big upside to playing golf. “You get to go out and play with people, get to have some one-on-one time.”

The last year has been an exciting one for writer Mat Johnson. His most recent novel, Pym, tells the tail of a failed academic who sails to Antarctica seeking the mythical world of Edgar Allen Poe’s only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Described by critics as “blisteringly funny” and “uproarious and hard driving,” the novel blends comedy, high adventure and searing social satire. Such was the response to the book that Mat, who teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston, has been much in demand to give interviews and speak at conferences. We got in line to talk to him.

OL: I know Pym wasn’t your first novel or published work but it did get a lot of recognition. What has the last year been like?

MJ: It’s been nice. Sometimes you write a book and they go to a lake and throw it in the dark water and there’s barely a ripple and I’ve had that happen, so to have a big response has been very enjoyable. I’ve been a published writer for 10 years, with three novels and several non-fiction books so I’ve seen books do well and not do well and I prefer them to do well.

OL: I read that it took you nine years to write Pym. How did the idea arise and what was it like living with it for nine years?

MJ: I’ve gone around for the last year speaking about this, and I always seem to give a different answer. I think it started with a fascination with Antarctica and I traced that back through Poe and once I got into Poe I started looking at the text and seeing racialized images. Poe’s book is this challenge to so many writers. Jules

because of what AFS is several teachers instead of just getting annoyed actually encouraged me. [Upper School English Teacher] Kristine Long formed this book club where we read different major works and one of the first books we did was Catch 22.

That book had more influence on who I am as a writer than anything else. People like Larry Wilkins also worked with me. He read the first stories I tried to write, which I’m sure were torturous. I came out feeling empowered.

MAT JOHNSON ’89 Writer Houston

Verne and several others had tried to write a sequel but nobody had done one in a long time and I became fascinated. The first versions I tried to make more literal. It was kind of like a 19th-century book and the result was sort of like if you can imagine building a Model T and taking it out on I 76 and getting run over. I had to learn how to turn it into a contemporary novel. So it went through a lot of different rewrites. The book and I got divorced about three times. I did not maintain the faith. At year 6 I tried to walk away from it. My wife and one of my best friends said ‘You can’t walk away!’ At year 8 I called my agent and said ‘I can’t do it!’ and she convinced me to do one more edit and we’d take it to a publisher, and it turned out that was it.

OL: Critics have talked about how you incorporate comedy and adventure. Is that a hallmark of your writing, to get your reader engaged with serious issues by using humor and action?

MJ: You don’t get to be the writer you want to be. You get to be the writer you are. I wanted to write like Toni Morrison or William Faulkner but it just didn’t work out. I didn’t

intend for it to be a funny book. All the critics focused on the humor a lot, which I was happy with. Sometimes it’s hard to see what you have before you.

OL: A reporter called Pym “loony, disrespectful and sharp.” Does that describe you as a high school kid at AFS?

MJ: When I was at AFS I was never a good student, which is a great irony because when I’m not writing and talking now I’m teaching. I transferred in for junior year and was there for junior and senior. When I was in grade school I had gone to Greene Street Friends and then I went to public high school for two years. I’m a city guy and not used to being in the suburbs, so it was a different culture. I was also used to being in a predominantly black environment.

The thing I got most out of at AFS was the one-on-one relationships with teachers, which I hadn’t had as a teenager. In a big school you can just get written off. When I got to AFS they had to do a lot of repair work on me. I had a hard time focusing on things I wasn’t directly interested in and at 16 that was a pretty limited list of things. Luckily

I went to West Chester University, but I was really driven by then. I worked harder than ever, did a year at the University of Wales in Swansea, and then went to Earlham College.

The kind of encouragement I got at AFS put me on the right track. In fact, Larry and Kristine were at my wedding.

At college I was just a literature major. I didn’t do any story telling. And now I’m so glad that’s what I did. Instead of focusing on my voice, I was learning about literature.

When I graduated I got a Watson Fellowship to travel around world. I had a remaining arts credit that I needed to do and I did a creative writing class at Temple University. After that, I wrote for the next three years on my own and then went to Columbia’s MFA program.

OL: You still have one more remaining connection to AFS I believe.

MJ: That’s right, I’m married to Meera Bowman, who I met at AFS. I worked on the grounds crew during the summer and she worked at AFSEP. We’ve been married for 13 years and have three small children. My schedule is very hectic. I drop them off at school at 8 and then I write until 11 and then I work on my teaching and the day is usually over at six. I also do a lot of speaking engagements so I tend to steal any time that I can to write. The thing is, nobody sits down and writes 300 pages. You write two here, three there.

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alumni in:

literature CARA LIUZZI ’08 Poet Princeton University Grade Poetry Night by Naomi Shihab Nye, a poet whose work she would come to love in Upper School.

Without poetry, says Princeton senior Cara Liuzzi, she might never have gotten into the Ivy League university.

And without Upper School English Teacher Mary Lynn Ellis, she might never have gotten into poetry.

Cara, who is majoring in English at Princeton, and also pursuing a Creative Writing Certificate, won the prestigious Morris Croll Poetry Prize, awarded by Princeton’s English Department for the best poem, in her sophomore year. This spring she read her poems alongside fiction writer Jane Smiley and poet Mary Ruefle at Princeton’s Creative Writing Reading Series.

Long before Mary Lynn transformed Cara’s life as a poet in Upper School, she had been introduced to the wonders of the form by Fifth Grade Teacher Jane McVeigh Schultz.

Cara remembers being inspired by Jane’s teaching and memorizing a poem for 5th

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In Cara’s junior year, she found herself in Mary Lynn’s English class. “She was the first person who took me seriously as a poet,” says Cara. “She was so supportive. I can’t say enough great things about Mary Lynn. I think she does such a great job of exposing everyone to a range of poetry. Jane and Mary Lynn both really appreciate the creativity that kids naturally have. Jane gets kids at a really creative point when they’re not embarrassed about anything, and then Mary Lynn gets them when they’ve gotten a little older and are able to write detail and write with nuance a little bit more.”

As Cara explains it, Mary Lynn happened to catch her at just the right moment, when she was really getting into writing poetry. “I don’t think I would have learned much at all about poetry without her helping me refine my aesthetics.

I submitted poems as part of my application to Princeton and wrote my application essay about my life as a poet. I later learned from a couple of admissions people that they really liked my poetry and that became a way for them to get to know who I was.”

Spice “Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood, The land of spices, something understood.”

—George Herbert The Middle Ages were bland until explorers brought spices from India.

Just salt, no curry or fennel seeds.

No sage or sumac, no tarragon or cardamom.

Can you imagine never having tasted cinnamon?

Imagine yourself tasting it for the first time.

What haven’t you tasted before?

I think of you, looking sideways at me over the cutting board, knife poised in mid-chop, hands damp with apple sheen, your close-lipped smile.

I’ve had cobbler and pie, the warm syrup of brown sugar cradling apple slices.

What I haven’t tasted is the apple in your hand—no nutmeg, no cinnamon.

I have never tasted the bare apple spiced only with the faint salt from your palms.

Cara Liuzzi

alumni in:

politics

CHARLES ELLISON ’92 Political Strategist and Analyst Washington, DC

Charles Ellison, a political strategist and analyst with nearly two decades of applied expertise in politics, public policy, campaigns, elections and social media, is managing editor of Politic365.com, and the Washington correspondent for The Philadelphia Tribune.

Charles has also provided advise to senior ranking elected officials and state, local and federal candidates over the years. Best known as the Host of “The New School” a weekly politics program on Sirius/XM satellite radio, Charles is also the author of an urban political thriller TANTRUM. He is frequently featured as a political analyst on Sirius/XM satellite radio, FOX News, and Roll Call TV. Charles frequently guest hosts “Stand Up w/ Pete Dominick” and “Press Pool” on Sirius/XM’s all day politics channel POTUS and he also works as a strategist for DDCAdvocacy, a political messaging and public affairs firm.

As busy as Charles is, especially with the election season upon us, he made time to chat with Oak Leaves about his life in politics and his memories of AFS.

a speechwriter for Newt Gingrich. That catapulted me in a big way. I transformed myself from being a congressional staffer to someone in the public eye.

OL: Though most of your work is in DC, you still write for the Philadelphia Tribune. Why?

OL: When did your interest in politics emerge?

CE: That’s a total labor of love. I grew up with that newspaper.

CE: I’ve always had a love for it. My former teachers at AFS will tell you I was a political animal back then. That was my adolescent laboratory. Toward the end of Middle School I started getting involved in extra curriculars like Model UN, Operation Understanding and the World Affairs Council and realized it was something I was really good at.

OL: Through the work you do in all of your different media venues what do you see as your overarching mission, your vocation?

CE: I have a love for politics. Over the past two decades I’ve crafted myself as a major political strategist, a communicator and thinker as well. I’m in two worlds so to speak, the one behind the scenes advising individual candidates and also the public work. My mission is all about making people aware of the political process and educating them about it. There’s a lot of mis-education out there and that’s not a good thing for a democracy.

One of the things AFS taught me is being open to new ways of thinking, fresh perspectives on a variety of critical issues.

There’s a lot of important things happening in the world today in this country so it’s really important for people to pay attention to what’s going on in the headlines and I’m really big on letting the larger audience know the stuff that goes on behind the scene. I think transparency is key in any democracy.

OL: Tell me the brief version of how you got from AFS to being a public figure in the political arena.

OL: I know you started at AFS in fifth grade.

What kind of a kid were you by high school?

CE: I was very curious and I liked to debate.

I was very philosophical and idealistic and I could be very outspoken. I’ve cooled down a bit since then. I never really clashed with the teachers because they encouraged open discourse and that’s how I learned the importance of it. I loved history, literature, Latin and Greek. I particularly loved Ray Schorle’s medieval history classes AFS was where I learned public speaking and built my confidence. I do radio and TV almost every other day now. When I started at AFS I didn’t have that kind of confidence.

I came from the public school system and I was very shy and then I found out ‘Wow I can actually talk to people.’ I’m a communicator and a message person and those first lessons I learned at AFS.

CE: I went to college in DC [American University, before transferring to the University of Maryland] and really immersed myself. I interned on Capital Hill, became a congressional staffer and then worked as

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politics “It’s kind of like a utility player position,” says Maryrose Myrtetus of her job as assistant to the chief of staff of US Senator Tom Carper. “I’ll help facilitate the day, draft memos and correspondence, work with the scheduling team, sit in on legislative meetings, supervise interns, a bunch of different things every day.”

Though the work can be high stress, it suits Maryrose, and it’s not her first experience of living and working on the Hill. The Vassar graduate interned in Senator Arlen Spector’s office while in college and last year she interned at the White House in the Vice President’s Chief of Staff’s office.

MARYROSE MYRTETUS ’05 Assistant to the Chief of Staff for US Senator Tom Carper Washington, D.C.

“That was a fantastic experience,” she says.

“Half of the time I was working with the Chief of Staff’s office and the other half I was doing research in the policy office of the Office of the Vice President. Not everybody is as lucky to get that kind of a dual experience. When I started in January the policy office was working on a huge speech launching a new initiative in April so that’s what I devoted my time to, and eventually that research turned into a memo that turned into a speech. It wasn’t just me, but it was really cool to be part of it.”

Maryrose has always had a civic-minded orientation. At AFS, which she attended from the 10th grade, she served on the community service committee and found herself loving the work. At Vassar she was class president and treasurer of her dorm, as well as serving on a variety of different committees. After graduating, she worked for a domestic violence agency in Philadelphia.

The White House internship was extremely competitive, with thousands of people applying for just over 100 spots. “What I learned through the process is you don’t get what you don’t try for,” says Maryrose. “I am so grateful to AFS for giving me the self

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“I am so grateful to AFS for giving me the self confidence to go ahead and apply to Vassar and the White House internship.” confidence to go ahead and apply to Vassar and the White House internship.”

When she had interned in Senator Spector’s office, Maryrose remembers thinking, “I’m going to go and experience the West Wing TV show and it’ll be so exciting.” She was disappointed to learn that real life was not quite like that. So when she began at the White House she kept her expectations in check. “In fact,” she says, “it was just like the show. People were so passionate and worked so hard.”

While Maryrose remembers many AFS teachers fondly, in a larger sense she thinks the School provided her with an internal grounding that allows her to stay true to herself and her values in times of stress and pressure. “AFS also taught me to think and listen to others before reacting, and that serves me well when I’m trying to do lots of things at once.”

alumni in:

theatre

MAX KLEINMAN ’03 Actor Los Angeles

Nobody ever said getting work as an actor in Los Angeles was easy. Max Kleinman found that out when he drove across country five years ago in pursuit of his dream. Through hard work and a bit of luck, though, he is getting to fulfill that dream, though like legions of his fellow actors he also waits tables to pay the bills.

While many of Max’s acting friends gravitated to New York City and the theater world after college, Max was interested specifically in film and TV and to give that a shot meant moving to LA. For his first couple of years, Max, who graduated from Drew University, took acting classes and acted in films made by film school students.

For his first paid gig he received $25 to be in an online sketch comedy. Web video, it turns out, can be a means to getting into

the Actors Union, which otherwise is a frustrating and difficult task. Max proceeded to write, produce and star in a five-episode web series called Friendzone that got him his union eligibility as well as a lot of good footage. More recently Max has fallen in with a young production company called Finite Films for whom he has played two large roles, as well as co-written and co-produced a short film.

Juggling a shooting schedule with his waiting job at the trendy A-Frame Restaurant takes some finessing. “It’s a lot of getting shifts covered,” says Max. “For one film we did 30 days of filming nights. That would entail me going to work from 5 to midnight, then hopping in the car, racing across town and filming a fight scene or car chase or dialogue until sunrise.”

The youngest of three AFS lifer siblings, Max was first cast in a play in 7th grade, for Alice in Wonderland. After that he was in every show until he graduated. He kept himself busy with other activities—the jazz band, the chorus, sports—but for Max it was always

about the plays. When his soccer team won the FSL championship for the first time in 20 years, he remembers running over to the theatre and asking Theatre Teacher Megan Hollinger, “We just won. Can we celebrate for half an hour and then come to rehearsal?”

Being exposed to the strong writing program at AFS has been very helpful, says Max, in college and beyond in terms of both creative writing on screenplays and in being able to read others’ work critically. Having real life examples of professional theater people as teachers was inspiring to Max, sending a clear message that this was an actual possibility.

Max hasn’t turned his back on theater acting. He was recently cast in a play and will start rehearsals soon. “But I’d never done any film acting before I came out here and didn’t feel I was properly equipped to decide which to pursue without first giving camera acting an honest try. Only now am I getting to the point where I can start to say whether acting itself is something I enjoy or not, and I’m finding that I do.”

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theatre Acting is not the only option for those with theatrical dreams, and for Whitney Estrin it turned out not to be the right option. Though she had studied theater at Drew University and received positive feedback on her forays into acting, she realized the lifestyle required a certain kind of personality, one she wasn’t sure she possessed.

It was a hard decision, says Whitney, but having done internships that included work on the administrative side she discovered that doing that kind of work incorporated a lot of creativity, problem solving and strategy. After earning an MFA in Theater Management at Yale University, she felt sure the producing side of things was the right place for her.

On graduating from the program Whitney took her current job running a seven million dollar capital campaign at the Shakespeare Theater Festival of New Jersey. Whitney has also done some freelance producing in Manhattan and is on the board of Space on Ryder Farm, an organization that offers fellowships and residencies for artists who want to work on their projects in a peaceful, rustic space.

Whitney’s career goal is to be managing director of a non-profit theater. In most theaters, she explains, there is an art director and a managing director. “Those two people are partners, the left and the right side of the brain if you like. In that model it’s imperative that the managing director understands the psyche of the artist and knows how to allow for artistic freedom while ensuring fiscal responsibility.”

An AFS lifer, Whitney was introduced to all things performance related by Debbie Pizzi, who gave Whitney her first role in a play in first grade. By her senior year she was stage-managing the Middle School musical

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WHITNEY ESTRIN ’98 Capital Campaign Manager Shakespeare Theater Festival of New Jersey

and she had also gained experience as a prop designer and an assistant costume designer.

When she got to college Whitney was stunned by how many students had only known high school theater as an extra curricular activity taught by an English teacher. To have been taught by professional actors with connections in the theater community, was something “you really can’t put a price on,” says Whitney. “Unbeknownst to me, I was going to a school doing something so rare and special.”

Having teachers she called by their first names, who gave her their home phone numbers, helped make Whitney feel

comfortable talking to adults. “Now,” she says, “when I’m asking people 40 years my senior for twenty five or fifty thousand dollars I attribute that level of comfort to AFS.”

At AFS, she says, “we didn’t spend a lot of time in elementary school learning our times tables, but we were so focused on learning how to solve problems and how to tell a good story. And that’s really all that theater is, and the business side is all about problem solving. So I track that back all the way to first and second grade.”

alumni in:

education When Ben Weitz ’was trying to come up with a way to help his eleventh grade students with their writing, he remembered something that had helped him at AFS and handed out writers’ notebooks, similar to one he had used in Anne Field’s class in fifth grade. That’s just one of the lessons from AFS that has helped Ben navigate a challenging year as a teacher in a public school in Washington, D.C. Being a teacher was never part of the plan for Ben when he graduated from AFS after attending the school since kindergarten.

While at Middlebury College, though, he became involved with several educational initiatives, including an organization called College for Every Student that helps underserved students on the path to college.

Ben became the president of the Middlebury chapter of the organization.

His interest spurred, he signed up with DC Teaching Fellows, a highly selective program that trains recent college graduates to become high-impact teachers in schools serving high-need students throughout the D.C. area. Ben prepared to become a fulltime teacher by spending his post graduation summer teaching ninth grade English summer school for students who had been in prison or juvenile hall. “It was pretty much trial and error,” says Ben, “and it was rough at times. I had a lot of experiences where I’d try to call home to talk to a student’s parents and I’d get a parole officer.” More than teaching them English, he says, it was about teaching them the benefits of school.

With his summer immersion experience under his belt, Ben was ready to enter the classroom fulltime, while working toward his teacher’s license. The large urban school Ben teaches in is far removed from the small community of AFS, but though class sizes

BEN WEITZ ’07 11th Grade English Teacher in a Public School Washington, D.C.

hover around 30 students, the school has made an effort to break things down with smaller learning communities, similar to advisories at AFS, says Ben. Seventy percent of the students speak English as a second language, having recently come to the US from Cameroon or Central America, so Ben is teaching them how to speak and write in English. On the tennis team he coaches, his 20 players come from 9 or 10 different countries.

“I’m still learning new things every day, and I still make mistakes,” says Ben. “When I’ve been struggling this year I’ve been in close contact with [former teachers] Andrew Bickford, Don Kaplan and Mary Lynn Ellis, who have given me a lot of good suggestions. Mary Lynn sent me packets of material and Don has taken me out for drinks at the Drake Tavern to tell me his philosophy on education.”

something similar at his public school, attending all his students’ basketball or football games and performances and giving them his cell phone number. He was fascinated to discover that every faculty meeting at his school starts off with a Quaker reading, though the school is nonreligious. “I brought that to my classroom,” he says, “giving students the opportunity to step into the circle.”

Ben says he is reminded of AFS every day as he teaches. The writers’ notebooks of course bring to mind Anne Fields. When students come into his room at lunchtime to do homework or talk, he remembers the lunch periods he spent in Jordan Burkey’s room playing Temple of Doom.

Perhaps his biggest revelation in his year of teaching has been this: “I remember thinking that teachers worked from 7:45 in the morning to 3:45 in the afternoon.

I realize now that’s not the case.”

Because a sense of community was so important to Ben at AFS, he is trying to build

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alumni in:

education

BARBARA RUCH ’50 Professor Emerita of Japanese Literature and Culture Columbia University, New York City Barbara Ruch has been a pioneer in the field of Japanese studies for more than 40 years. She is Professor Emerita of Japanese Literature and Culture at Columbia University and Director and Founder of the university’s Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies. It’s the work she’s been doing in the last decade, though, that excites her the most.

For the past 10 years Professor Ruch has been focusing much of her attention on two projects: establishing a classical Japanese music curriculum and instrumental ensemble at Columbia and restoring and preserving Japan’s 13 remaining Imperial Buddhist convents.

Traditional Japanese classical music, says Professor Ruch, had, until recently, all but ceased to exist in Japan. When the country opened to the west 120 years ago, the ensuing westernization led to traditional Japanese musical instruments being banned from schools and a western curriculum taking over. Professor Ruch realized that

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everything about Japan is being taught in US universities except the music, and since Columbia has a long history of musical instruction, she has been working on establishing there an interdepartmental program where students can be trained by masters from Japan. In Tokyo she is working on founding a conservatory of Japanese music on the scale of Juilliard that can become a mecca for students of Japanese instruments from around the world.

On a recent trip to Japan, Professor Ruch met with the presidents of several of Japan’s top companies to talk about the music project. She also had meetings to discuss her other passion, saving the imperial Buddhist convents of Japan. Founded thousands of years ago by women of the Imperial family, these convents were also cultural centers where the most elite women of the day wrote poetry, painted and preserved Japanese culture. Many of the convents were destroyed after the 1868 break between the Imperial family and Buddhism.

Only 13 survived and are maintained on a shoestring by one or two nuns each. The challenge now is not only to restore the remaining buildings and their many treasures, but also to ensure that cultured women with knowledge of Buddhist rituals can be found to succeed the present

Abbesses. “The ongoing viability of these gorgeous convents depends on it,” says Professor Ruch.

Professor Ruch’s abiding interest in Japan began several years after she graduated from AFS. A Philadelphia Quaker and member of Abington Monthly Meeting, she enrolled at Earlham College and then joined an American Friends Service Committee group that was repairing war damage to orphanages and nursing homes in Japan.

For Professor Ruch, it was a life changing experience. “The people are just so cultured and wonderful you can’t help love being there,” she says, “but I was lonely and I couldn’t speak Japanese well so I went to a big bookstore and started reading Japanese literature in translation.” When she lit on Arthur Waley’s translation of The Tale of Genji, she was astonished. “I was a double major in English literature and social psychology and I said, ‘Wow, this doesn’t follow any of the rules I learned for what a novel is or what poetry is about.’ It had an entirely different emotional language and structure, but it was a great masterpiece.

I figured I had to find a way to read it in the original.”

Returning to the United States, Professor Ruch entered the master’s program at the

University of Pennsylvania to study the Japanese and Chinese languages.

Knowing that one of the biggest names in Japanese literature studies, Donald Keene, was at Columbia at that time, Professor Ruch applied for a Ford grant to go there for a doctorate and keep studying Japanese literature. “I had no idea what I wanted to do,” she says, but she ended up being a professor, first at Harvard and then at Penn, where she established the first institute for Medieval Japanese studies. “It was just one move after another chasing what was thrilling and beautiful,” she says.

While studying for her doctorate at Columbia she returned to Japan and studied for a year and a half at Kyoto University where, as she puts it, “I got rid of my street Japanese and learned something more suitable for a scholar.”

After she gained tenure at Columbia, Professor Ruch made an arrangement with Professor Keene that they would each teach half a year in New York and then go to Japan for the other half of the year. She got spring and he got fall.

“If there’s anything that seems to have characterized me,” says Professor Ruch, “It’s that I was always trying to work in an area that had been neglected or avoided or not noticed. The last thing I wanted to do was to become one more scholar of The Tale of Genji or do something everybody else was doing.”

She adds that her two current projects are what she is most proud of because they will continue after her lifetime. “Rather than making a name for myself, I’ve wanted to be an institution builder,” she says. “I want to institute things so that they will go on without me in areas that were neglected, and unjustly so.”

RUSSELL NADEL ’01 Middle School Music Specialist, The Potomac School McLean County, VA

Russell Nadel teaches music in the middle school at the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia, an independent school on a 90-acre campus close to Washington, DC. He learned his profession, though, in a very different setting, at a large public school with a 90 percent minority population.

It was that experience, says Russell, that made him into the teacher he is today.

“It was very challenging, but I couldn’t have learned anywhere else,” he says. “That school had some real problems, but some real strengths, too, and by the time I left those kids had built an incredible skill set on their instruments and were great musicians.”

When Russell himself was at school (he came to AFS in seventh grade), he was an enthusiastic and eclectic musician. “I’ve always been a musical omnivore, and at AFS there were an amazing number of opportunities for growth for someone globally interested in music.” As well as playing the piano, Russell taught himself guitar, participated in jazz band, spent time in the keyboard lab and was a member of the chorus and the madrigal singers.

Russell was drawn to composing, and that’s how he got his first inkling that teaching might be his profession. Having written a piece for the band, Russell was given permission by music teacher Chris Buzby

to conduct it. “It was my first experience of waving my arms and having to go through the rehearsal process.” In Upper School he also started a tutoring club and discovered how much he enjoyed being able to help younger students.

Though composing still drew him, Russell was reminded by his mother how much he liked working with people. At the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Russell completed a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music composition and a bachelor’s degree in music education.

In his teaching, Russell practices a pedagogy called Orf Schulwerk, which integrates movement and poetry into music and incorporates mallet instruments, recorders and hand drums. One of the key tenets of Orf is the sheer power of creativity, which speaks to the composer in Russell and inspires him in his work with students. “It’s such a thrill for me to watch my students compose and gain ownership of material, to see them growing more competent and learning to improvise.”

Russell also gains satisfaction from watching minds open. “One of my passions is teaching music from other countries. When I arrived they just wanted to sing songs they heard on radio. ‘Part of my responsibility,’ I told them, ‘is to open your minds, to let you hear music you would never have run into in your life.’ I believe they’re richer for it.”

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alumni in:

food

MARSHALL GREEN ’99 Restaurant Owner Philadelphia

For restaurant owner Marshall Green, sustainability has been a way of life from his earliest memories. Growing up on a corn farm in Plymouth Meeting, Marshall, who was home schooled for much of his childhood, always had a vegetable garden and remembers his mother canning and preserving jar upon jar of produce.

By eighth grade he knew he wanted to go to culinary school, mostly, he says, because he saw that the table was where people came together and bonded, and “the better the food, the better the bond.”

At his Northern Liberties restaurant Café Estelle, where he serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, Marshall is committed to being as sustainable as possible. “I feel that I have an opportunity to spend a significant amount of food dollars in the right direction,” he says.

“Whereas an individual buys for themselves or their family, we buy for the 750 people we

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feed every week and make a bit more of an impact when we use high quality foods and support local agriculture.”

Marshall relies on a handful of suppliers including Lancaster Farm Fresh, a cooperative of farmers. In raised beds outside the restaurant he grows green beans, Swiss chard, beets, blueberries, tomatoes and peppers, as well as herbs. At his South Philadelphia home he also grows an abundance of vegetables, including basil in his basement.

When Marshall entered AFS in the tenth grade he realized he needed social time with people his own age. Being homeschooled and working for his father in his garden center (Primex in Glenside), Marshall found that most of his friends were twice his age.

His earlier experience of public school had left him confused. “I didn’t really understand the disrespect that was shown to teachers. It didn’t seem to make sense that someone in a position of authority could be treated so

badly.” The classroom atmosphere at AFS he found much more congenial, though he says his “alternative” view of education caused him to butt heads occasionally with his teachers. Anxious to get out in the real world, Marshall was nonetheless grateful to meet people at AFS.

After graduating from the New England Culinary Institute, Marshall worked at some of Philadelphia’s top restaurants, including Fork, Django and Meritage, before starting his own venture. Though running a restaurant is a tough profession, Marshall finds it rewarding, especially when a dish is a particular hit with a customer. “I was watching a girl taking her first bite of a dish I’d made—it was gnocci with Brussels sprouts, dates, lamb pancetta and gorgonzola—and she closed her eyes and just sort of smiled. Food is transporting, transcendent, it can take you to a memory or a place and it can make you happy and take over your entire body.”

JENN MENTZER ’76 Chef Cape Cod, MA

When Jenn Mentzer saw Michelle Obama on television talking about children’s nutrition, she realized she was on her way to finding her next calling. A chef and caterer on Cape Cod, Jenn has had a successful career in the food industry and is currently the director of catering and catering chef for Mac’s Seafood in Wellfleet.

As a lifelong foodie who remembers childhood summers on the Cape where there was “always something from the garden on the table,” Jenn knows the difference access to fresh, healthy food can have in a young person’s life.

Poking around on the Chefs Move to Schools website, Jenn saw that the organization, which the First Lady had

mentioned, was pairing up chefs with schools. Jenn jumped aboard and partnered with her local elementary school, where she began cooking a monthly fish lunch. The seafood company whose catering operation she runs provided the fish. Pretty soon she was experimenting to find healthy alternatives to some of the commodity foods that were regularly delivered to the school.

Recently, she made a “chocolate hummus” with dates, black beans and agave nectar.

“We did a tasting and put it on graham crackers and the kids loved it,” she says.

“My next challenge is sweet potato whoopee pies.”

participating in “foraged food” dinners, where she makes such treats as rose petal meringues and chocolate truffles with wild blueberries from her garden.

Jenn’s family has a foundation whose focus is funding programs for kids. When she’s not catering elaborate events at museums, yacht clubs and private homes, Jenn is also involved in the Wellfleet locavore scene,

A resident of Cape Cod for more than 30 years, Jenn enjoys the “controlled chaos” of clam bakes and weddings and the satisfaction that comes from introducing children to home grown, healthy food.

An AFS lifer, Jenn remembers spending her elementary school years in the Triangle Building. In her junior year she traveled to Greece for a cultural experience and for her senior project she worked on a farm in West Virginia. With a graduating class of just 34 fellow students, Jenn, whose strongest subjects were art and languages, admits she was itching to graduate and enter the real world.

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alumni in:

arts

ELLEN KAHN ’79 Artist New York City

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Artist Ellen Kahn’s connections with AFS are long and deep. A lifer, she returned to Abington Friends in the 1990s to teach art in the Lower School. She now lives in New York City with her photographer husband, splitting her time between painting in her studio and training as a psychoanalyst/psychotherapist.

Teaching has been a constant over the years for Ellen. She has been an adjunct faculty at Lesley University in Boston in the Graduate School of Creative Studies for many years. In New York City, she has taught art and aesthetic education at the prestigious Lincoln Center Institute and at the 92nd St. Y. When she reflects on her teaching experiences, though, it is the time at AFS, she says, that was the most rewarding. Ellen had been working as a graphic designer, before graduating with an MFA in painting from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ellen moved to New York when she was 39, mostly to pursue her painting career. “I don’t think I would have been brave enough earlier,” she says. Painting on canvas and on paper, Ellen explores the convergence of the natural and manmade world, order and disorder, instinct/intuition and intellect.

She has shown her work regularly throughout the United States and Mexico in both solo and group exhibitions.

“Coming back to AFS after so many years was weird,” says Ellen, who had been in the Triangle Building when she was in Lower School at AFS. “But I knew how to use Quaker education and I knew what silence was about. I loved the Lower School faculty and it was an amazingly creative place.”

Coming back to Philadelphia, Ellen also got to reconnect with her own beloved Lower School art teacher Jan Stone, who had

ALUMNNI IN THE WORLD

nurtured Ellen’s interest in art from a young age.

Part of what made teaching in AFS’s Lower School so rewarding for Ellen was the interaction with families, and that instinct led her ultimately to her decision to train to become a psycholanalyst/psychotherapist. It was while working on a painting series about Alice in Wonderland that the idea began to take hold. “I relate to and enjoy the point of view of a young child in the world,” she says.

“I love the idea that Alice gets small and large and I started to think more about dreams and psychology.”

Ellen decided to take a class at The National Psychological Association of Psychoanalysis and really enjoyed it. “I’ve always been interested in people and their stories and what makes us tick, and having my paintings affect people. I like the way that paintings speak to people without language.”

Next time you pick up a copy of Metropolitan Home or Martha Stewart Living and flip to a gorgeous photo of an effortlessly beautiful living room you might well be looking at the work of New York based photographer Peter Murdock.

Peter has established quite a name for himself shooting photographs for worldrenowned designers and architects, as well as such magazines as Veranda, Elle Décor, InStyle, Traditional Home and House Beautiful.

His journey toward his current success has not been without its twists and turns, though.

Peter set out to be a filmmaker, and that’s what he went to school for at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, intending to minor in photography. There, two professors got Peter fired up about photography and helped him make contacts in New York City.

While still at art school, Peter began taking pictures of models and began to get work.

He also started doing internships in New York, commuting back and forth on the train. “I think it’s really important,” says Peter, “to apprentice yourself to somebody, to do those internships. It’s how you learn the business and develop your networking skills.”

Instead of heading straight for Manhattan when he graduated, though, Peter went to Los Angeles for a year. “I went because I’d never been,” he says. “I thought I’d give it a try.

I thought there’s got to be some fashion happening out there. Nothing happened at all! It was basically a year off after 22 years of schooling.” Still, while he was there Peter continued picture on his own and sending them back to Sax, Bloomingdales and other clients in New York.

PETER MURDOCK ’86 Photographer New York City

Back in New York, Peter became a busy, successful fashion photographer, with Perry Ellis as a major client. “For some reason,” he says, “something wasn’t clicking. I don’t know if it was the community or that it was too competitive.” When he got an assignment to shoot for House Beautiful, he felt more at ease, he says, more true to himself. Having found his niche, Peter has stuck with that direction and enjoys the creativity it involves, as well as the travel.

While his home and studio are in Chelsea, he travels frequently throughout the US and on shoots around the world.

On a typical magazine shoot, Peter will be accompanied by his digital technician and two assistants. “It’s always better not to have the homeowner there,” says Peter, since furniture is often moved around, or brought in from other rooms to create a beautiful composition. “There’s a big difference, too,” he says, “Between what the camera sees and what your two eyes see. It took a while for me to get used to that coming a from a fashion background. Now I know how to do it, but it’s still a real team effort. That effortless look we create, there’s a lot that goes into it.”

Keeping up with technology is a constant for Peter, and a far cry from his memories of developing film in his bathroom darkroom as a child. At AFS for his junior and senior year, Peter, who had previously been at a boarding school in New Hampshire, formed lasting friendships and enjoyed his experience.

“I think they really helped me forge my independence,” he says. “They allowed individuality and encouraged that.” His only regret is that he never spoke in Meeting for Worship. “I wanted to, but I never did.

Looking back I should have. There was no judgment.”

And Peter’s advice for young people just starting out? “Just enjoy what you do because it really fills up your time and it’s your life, so follow your bliss and have fun.”

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classnotes 52 60th Reunion REUNION CHAIR Geralyn Roden ’52: lincthird@aol.com Evelyn Steelman Doane writes, “While I am kept very busy as a real estate broker on Cape Cod, I am currently in Naples, Florida,for a few months enjoying the sunshine and playing lots of golf. With the wonders of technology I have sold several homes on the Cape while down here as well as having obtained some listings. I feel so fortunate to be involved in such an exciting profession while having so much fun!”

57 55th Reunion REUNION CHAIR Liz Cole ’55: birdlifer@yahoo.com

1961 Susie Vansant Bartz writes, “I’ve enjoyed my renewed contacts with classmates after our wonderful 50th reunion in May and hope always to welcome visitors here in Santa Barbara. Husband Jarry and I now await the arrival of our third grandson, to be followed by a trekking tour of the mountains of northern Spain, and other hiking in California’s coastal and Sierra Nevada ranges.

Back at home, I stay busy leading geology field trips outdoors and occasionally join Jarry on the badminton court. Every day is a gift and an opportunity!”

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Bonnie Drummond Gross writes, “Soon I am leaving Florida to return to Newtown Square, PA. I’m still active on the Board at the Main Line Art Center and continue to exhibit at the Muse Gallery in Philadelphia. Painting is my passion, but I’m really in love with my two new grandchildren, Winslow 2, and Hamilton 5 months. My other loves—husband Ken, all of our children and grandchildren, and the Girls (two golden retrievers)—complete our happy family for which I am very grateful!

62 50th Reunion RE UN ION CHAI R Ann Alexander ’62: alexander2959@gmail.com

1968 Becky Van Buren continues to enjoy being the Lead Art Teacher at Mackintosh Academy, an IB pre-K through 8th school in Littleton, appreciating family time, Bella and Darcy (dogs), workouts at the gym and her over-30-years Book Club friends who continue to read and meet every month!

1969 Robin Becker writes, “I continue to teach creative writing at Penn State and this year will serve as a judge for PA Poetry Out Loud.

Last year, as the Penn State Laureate, I traveled the Commonwealth, visiting branch campuses & bringing the good news—poetry.”

72 40th Reunion RE UNI O N CHAI R Kathy Lanning Saporito ’72 and Eileen Dunkleberger ’72: loueidunk@aol.com Lynda Ann Martin Paquette writes, “We are doing well here in Alaska. Our small lodging business (Angels Rest on Resurrection Bay), is in the final growth phase, putting the dressing touches on our last building “The Gathering House,” enabling us to become a small retreat center. My husband Paul, classmate Lisa Nuttall and I founded a small charity Alaskan & Aging Neighbors Giving Equal Loving Support and Care, Inc. (AK ANGELS Care, Inc.). I miss the many wonderful people of Abington Friends School and Meeting. The beauty of Alaska, the abundance of wildlife and the joy of grandchildren keep me fairly well distracted! :-) Hope to hear about the upcoming reunion!”

1975 Marci Abramowitz Goldshlack writes, “I am doing well. Having fun with my twin boys, as they turn 14 in March. Still enjoying my work as a corporate trainer. In my spare time I have been doing a bit of stand up comedy, as a graduate from Helium’s Comedy Academy.

You may catch me at some local open mics throughout Montgomery County, or participating in some events at Helium. I have attached a family pic of my husband and sons on our recent trip to Denver, where my sister, Shari lives.” (see photo top right)

been a service-learning chaperone for the past two years to South Africa to build and refurbish a classroom at The Zuurbekom School in Randfontain, and is also teaching teachers how to teach in partnership with Global Literacy Programs. She is on the Board of Directors for The Summit Public Library and City Committee member for the Summit Republicans and was the former Chairman of the Party from 2004- 2008.

David Thomas writes, “I am in my 24th year as a Grade 5 science teacher at Friends’ Central School. My wife Deb teaches reading in our lower school. We both run a day camp for children aged three years to six years, at Friends’ Central’s lower school. Our oldest daughter Amy is an assistant kindergarten teacher in Virginia. Rebecca, our second oldest daughter is a sophomore studying computer science at Harvey Mudd and her twin brother David is studying and working part time.”

1976 Leeanne Rebic Hay writes, “I have lived in the Dallas, Texas area for 25 years now. It has been a wonderful place to raise a family and have a family business. This past year, our company received its North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency as a WomanOwned minority business, one of only two in the field of Commercial Plumbing Construction. As the CEO and VP of Operations, it has been a perilous time for small businesses in the last 4 years. I am proud that we have survived and our terrier tough company will be celebrating our 24th year in business this July. I am enjoying keeping up with classmates via Facebook...such a wonderful way to rekindle the best memories and in retrospect, understand more about one another then from where we are now.”

1977 Mary Wells Ogden has been teaching 1st grade for the past 14 years at The Pingry School. She has been in teaching and doing Administration work in education since 1983!

She has two children ages 20 & 18, one attends Rhodes College in Memphis TN and the other is a senior in High School at Pingry. She has been married for 22 years to Henry Ogden, of Short Hills NJ. She has also

82 30th Reunion RE UNION CHAI R Heidi Miller Garnick ’82: hgarnick@obdyke.com Kerry Pease-Coble is the owner of Art Matters Studio in Lancaster, PA. At her studio, she teaches art to children, provides Mommy and Me classes, Home School education, adult craft classes, art camps and holds “Arty Parties” for children’s birthdays and group events. You can see all the goings on at her studio at Facebook.com/ artmattersstudio.

1985 Mark Green writes, “Over the winter holidays, members of the Class of 1985 gathered at classmate Ben Barnett’s studio in Northern Liberties (www.mediabureau.com) to reminisce and reconnect.” (see photo below)

87 25th Reunion RE UNI O N CHAI R Bob Topkis ’87 and Gary Carter ’87: rtopkis@comcast.net and splube@yahoo.com

92 20th Reunion RE UNI O N CHAI R Michelle Yorkman ’92 and Molly Foley ’92: mnyorkman@yahoo.com and mollyfoley33@gmail.com

1993 Alisa Ruby Bash and her husband Isaac welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Scarlett, born on November 22, 2011. Both are doing great!

Jason Pizzi writes, “I’m currently working on the road as a stage manager with Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour. The show is currently playing arenas in North America, and scheduled to go to Europe in the fall of 2012.”

1994 Missy Kosmin Renfer married Brian Renfer on December 18, 2010 and they recently welcomed their son Tyler Benjamin Renfer on September 8, 2011. Missy’s daughter Marley just turned 6 in January and Missy and Brian are currently living in Blue Bell.

Brian and Missy are both teachers. Brian teaches 7th Grade Science at Lower Merion School District and Missy teaches 3rd grade at Juniata Park Academy.

1996

(l to r back row) Marc Perry, Benjamin F. Barnett, Diane Craig, Christie Michener Corallo, Mark R Green, Carla Fisher and Jason Charles Walker. front row: Dana Bower, Rebecca Passon Dampf, Lisa Reeves-Jones, Jill Neilson, Jacqueline Grant Scott Krase writes, “The Krase family has relocated to London. So far, everyone is really excited to be attending proper British schools and enjoying this amazing experience!”

Taryn Sklenar Fogg writes, “Jared and I just had our 3rd child on mother’s day May 8, 2011. Shelby Lynn Fogg joined her two brothers Austin, 10 and Tyler 2 1/2. We are doing well our 40-acre horse farm in southern NJ. Austin is very active in midget football and midget wrestling. Last year he won his 64 lb weight bracket for our tri-county area. This year we hope to win more tournaments. I completed my masters in education in 2010 and I am currently looking for a job as a school counselor in NJ.”

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Almost 2 decades after singing a romantic duet onstage in the Josephine Muller Auditorium, Karen Meshkov and Matt Pillischer are real-life sweethearts getting married in July of 2012! In a nod to the Quaker influence imparted to them, they’ll be married in the Race Street Meetinghouse in Center City Philadelphia. Among the bridal party are Sunshine McBride, Nikki (Rubin) Waxman, and Clark Loro. Karen is the 5th generation proprietor of her family’s Philadelphia Eyeglass Labs company. Matt is a lawyer /advocate who just completed the documentary, Broken On All Sides, a movie that focuses on systemic racism in the criminal justice system, and will begin a film tour this Spring. They live in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia and still sing duets together.

97 15th Reunion REUNION CHAIR Jared Solomon ’97: jaredgsolomon@gmail.com

1998 Jamie Bromberg Tretola writes, “I have taken some time off from teaching to stay at home with my beautiful children. Alyssa is turning 4 in June and Daniel will be 2 in September. My little munchkins have brought nothing but pure joy into our lives. I feel so blessed.

I hope all my fellow classmates are doing great!” (see photo below)

currently enrolled in a master’s degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, where I am focusing my research on how people interact with the rhetoric of economic policies and currently waiting to hear back about a PhD application to continue studying here. Meanwhile, I’m also working part time at Nielsen in marketing research, so staying busy and enjoying life in Europe!

2001 Cherine Morsi writes, “I am happy to announce that this semester I am student teaching and finishing up my last semester of my master’s program at Chestnut Hill College. I will be graduating in May with my Masters in Education and my elementary education teaching certification. I am currently working as an Associate at Wilmington Friends School in a kindergarten classroom continuing my love of Quaker schools.”

02 10th Reunion RE UNION CHAI R Becca Bubb ’02: becca.bubb@gmail.com

2003 Asher Steinberg will graduate from Georgetown Law in May. This fall he will begin a one-year clerkship for Judge Jerome A. Holmes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Asher will draft some of the judge’s opinions. He will be living in Oklahoma City.

2004

2000 Ryan Foley writes, “I recently completed a master’s degree in Comparative Law, Economics and Finance at the International University College in Turin, Italy. It’s a great program that focuses on understanding the economic and legal foundations of globalization. Leading on from that, I’m

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CLASSNOTES

Arin Shoemaker recently graduated Lasalle University in September 2011 with a master’s in Clinical and Criminal Counseling and will be a licensed psychologist by May 2012. She is currently working for an adoption agency in Philadelphia and plans to continue her education at University of Pennsylvania for her Phd.

2005 Alana Blumenthal writes, “In June 2011, after completing my term as Assistant Curator at the National Mining Museum, I began my current position at the Loudoun Museum as the Curator and Collections Manager.”

Claire Kaplan taught last year in the Philadelphia school district, then spent some time this fall at the Occupy Wall Street protests. She is currently interning at Sanctuary One, a care farm for rescued animals in Oregon.

Maryrose Myrtetus writes, “I am working in the U.S. Senate for Senator Tom Carper of Delaware. I love living in DC and from time to time I run into AFS alumni down here.

I’m still dating Matt Nunn (AFS ’05) and we are excitedly helping prepare for the wedding of my sister, Liz ’07, and Jeff Kahn ’06 in September 2012.”

Ariella Singer writes, “I currently live in Durham, NC, and am graduating from Duke University School of Nursing in May and plan to begin Duke’s Family Nurse Practitioner program in the fall of 2012.”

2006 Rachel Gitlevich writes, “I’m currently working at an animation studio in NY, Flickerlab, on TV content. I’ve worked on Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans before then, and completed a music video for Amanda Palmer and Jason Webbley on their album titled ‘Evelyn Evelyn.’ Another piece of mine won first place at a Project 21 screening ‘Shorts and Shots.’ Go Uarts art and theater departments!”

07 5th Reunion RE UNI O N CHAI R Liz Myrtetus ’07 and Lindsey Garrison ’07: elizabeth.myrtetus@gmail.com and lindseygarrison11@gmail.com Aleks Krutainis writes, “Directly after graduation, I ended filming for the independent film ‘Portraits of Sari,’ I performed the role of Kyle Morgan. The film was featured in various film festivals and celebrated a wonderful red carpet opening in Philadelphia. This past year I just graduated from NYU Tisch with a degree in Drama.

In my time at NYU, I performed in both musicals and dance pieces such as Grand Hotel, Nijinsky in Asylum, Subsistence. I also had the opportunity to choreograph a short film called Dueling Harmony, which

addressed issues of struggling with one’s own sexuality. In the summers, I was accepted to and also received scholarships to dance with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Orlando Ballet, the Nashville Ballet and North Carolina Dance Theatre. Following graduation I performed with SLK Ballet at Baryshnikov Arts Center, in NYC, dancing roles from Swan Lake, Raymonda and Stars and Stripes. I am currently in my first season dancing with the Nashville Ballet. So far this season, I have performed in the ballets ‘Cinderella’ and ‘The Nutcracker’. I am now in rehearsals for ‘Swan Lake’ with the North Atlanta Dance Theatre, where I will be performing as the lead Spanish dancer among other roles. I was also recently offered a full scholarship to train with the North Carolina Dance Theatre for this upcoming summer and I am being considered for a position with the Company.

Outside of the Ballet world, I was also just signed by Scout Model Management and I look forward to getting started! I am

thankful for AFS for fueling my creativity and pushing me to become a thoughtful and aware individual.

Clare Steinberg graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins University last May and was inducted into Phi Betta Kappa.

She is working at Pepper Hamilton LLP’s Philadelphia office as a paralegal while she considers law school.

2008 Jackie Kahn writes, “I am graduating from Simmons College this spring with a major in Arts Administration and Marketing. My fiancé and I will be moving to Cincinnati, OH where we will begin planning our wedding! I am looking forward to taking some time off after graduation to relax, travel and then begin the job search, looking for a Development position at a museum or non-profit come August/September. Hope all is well at AFS and with alumni, can’t believe it’s almost our FIVE year reunion class of ’08!”

2010 Ted Goh still plays cello and continues to keep his musical interests alive. At Swarthmore, Ted has actively performed in various chamber music groups, including piano trios, string trios and quartets. Ted has been invited to perform with his string trio and quartet at the Ischia Chamber Musical Festival in Italy. He looks forward to playing in beautiful concert venues, participating in master classes and touring Italy. He wishes the best for his colleagues in the class of 2010.

2011 Aubree Luquet has felt nothing but support from the AFS community, and feels confident and accepted enough to let the community know she has started transitioning into life as a male, going by the name Ryan Luquet. Ryan hopes to receive the same amount of support and caring that he had at AFS as a student. Ryan is attending Cabrini College and enjoying college life to the fullest.

2012

connect with fellow AFS alumni

Daveed Buzaglo writes, “I was selected as a YoungARTS finalist and as a presidential scholar nominee in the arts for classical voice this year. YoungARTS is the core program of the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and the program selects 150 artists from 9 disciplines out of a pool of nearly 6,000 17 and 18 year olds to go down to Miami for a week in January.

Through this program, 50-60 kids are selected as nominees for presidential scholar in the arts. What this means is that the 20 kids who are selected go to Washington and receive awards from the President in a ceremony in the Rose Garden.”

Expand your network On facebook: Alumni of Abington Friends School On linkedin: Search for the Abington Friends School group

Class notes are compiled by the Alumni Office. You can submit a class note by calling Anna Stiegel Glass in the Alumni Office (215-576-3966), via email to alumni@abingtonfriends.net. Please submit photos as .jpgs at a resolution of 300 dpi or higher.

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in memoriam Jane Cobourn Riley ’54

Dorothy Yarnall McGrath ’46

Jane Cobourn Riley ’54, of 13 Skipper Lane, Salem, SC, wife of Clark Kaye Riley, passed away Sunday, November 6, 2011, at Seneca Health and Rehabilitation. She was 75 years old.

Dorothy Yarnall McGrath ’46 passed away on January 1, 2012 at the Fleet Landing Health Center in Atlantic Beach, Florida after a brief illness. She was 83 years old.

Mrs. Riley was born on April 28, 1936 in Philadelphia, PA the daughter of the late Mary Strawn Thomas & J. Earl Cobourn of Rydal, PA. Jane graduated from the Abington Friends School in 1954, and attended Bucknell University before marrying her high school sweetheart, Clark, in 1955.

Mrs. McGrath was born August 22, 1928, in Philadelphia, Penn., the daughter of Charles Ralph Yarnall and Dorothy Doughty Yarnall.

She grew up in Wyncote, Pennsylvania and attended Abington Friends School. She had one elder sister, Barbara.

Jane was a devoted mother, homemaker, and wife who graciously accepted the many moves away from her beloved suburban Philadelphia area, as Clark pursued his career. She was an avid bridge player, and wrote some very beautiful poetry. A particular milestone in a friend or relative’s life always prompted Jane to write a poem specifically for the occasion.

Many will remember her for this act of kindness.

In addition to her husband Clark, Mrs. Riley is survived by three children, Skip and Kathy Riley of Hebron, KY, Beverlee and Stephen McCourt of Kingston, MA, and John Riley of the home; three grandchildren, Adam Riley of Chestertown, NY, and David and Katherine McCourt of Kingston; and one sister, Elizabeth and Richard Cole of Rocky Mount, VA. Jane will be buried on the Abington Meeting grounds in Jenkintown, PA at a later date.

No local services are planned at this time.

Please submit obituary announcements of the greater alumni community to the Alumni Office. Submissions are welcomed with or without a photo (at 300 dpi or greater). Electronic submissions are preferred and may be sent to alumni@abingtonfriends.net.

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IN MEMORIAM

Mrs. McGrath graduated from Bucknell University in 1949. On January 6, 1951, she married Henry Lockwood McGrath, Jr. at All Hallows Church in Wyncote, Pennsylvania.

During their life together, Mrs. McGrath and her husband raised three children while living in Bethlehem, Pa., Chevy Chase, Md. and Darien, Conn. The couple then spent many happy years in retirement on St. Simons Island, Ga., moving finally to Atlantic Beach, Florida.

Mrs. McGrath was a devoted wife and mother, friend and community volunteer.

Her pleasurable pastimes included knitting, gardening, bridge and entertaining. Mrs. McGrath was an animal lover and enjoyed caring for a succession of family pets. In addition, she was an avid supporter of Habitat for Humanity. Traveling with her husband, Mrs. McGrath visited England, France and Italy.

Mrs. McGrath is survived by her loving husband of 60 years, Henry Lockwood McGrath, Jr. of Atlantic Beach, Fla.; daughters and sons-in-law Robin Olson and Jim Olson of Mercer Island, Wash.; Lindsay McGrath and David Kusek of Cohasset, Mass.; son David McGrath and daughter-in-law Debby McGrath of North Bend, Wash. She is also survived by grandchildren James Olson, Jr. of Seattle, Wash., Samuel Kusek of West Newton, Mass., Michael Kusek of New

Haven, Conn. and Katie McGrath of North Bend, Wash. Numerous nieces and nephews throughout the country will also mourn her passing, Mrs. McGrath was predeceased by her parents, sister Barbara and son, Henry, who died in infancy.

Alice Wright Conkey Alice Wright Conkey, 91, former AFS teacher and Dean of Students, passed away Jan. 7 at her home at Wheelock Terrace in Hanover, N.H. after a period of declining health. She had resided in Hanover since 1999 and was a longtime summer resident of Jefferson.

She was 91 years old.

From her obituary, published in Lincoln County News on January 10, 2012: Before moving to Hanover, she and her husband raised their family of five girls in Philadelphia, Penn. Born Alice Kepler Wright in Vengurla, India, she was the first child of the Rev. Horace Kepler Wright and Adelaide (Fairbank) Wright. She graduated from the Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India, and magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Mount Holyoke College in 1941, a double major in music and English. Alice then joined the music faculty at Germantown Friends School (Philadelphia), where she met and married (1942) fellow musician Albert B. Conkey. While raising the family, she pursued graduate studies at Temple University, was an active volunteer with Brownies and Girl Scouts, and was involved in musical activities such as teaching piano, singing in and directing choirs at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, and performing two-piano concerts with Al. In 1960, Alice joined the faculty at Abington Friends School, as both music teacher and later Dean of Students.

She retired in 1982 after a full and dedicated tenure, actively participating in an important growth period for the school.

reunion weekend 2012 Saturday, May 5 10:30 am

Registration Begins

11:00 am

All-Alumni/Former Faculty Meeting for Worship

12:00 pm

Alumni Luncheon for all alumni classes and former faculty Alumni Tent at Roo Fest

12:00-4:00pm Alumni Reception at Roo Fest Roo Fest is a family friendly event for the entire AFS Community with games, live music, food and fun.

Join us under the Alumni Tent for: Lunch, Reunion Class Pictures, Reunion Tours

Reconnect with your classmates and former faculty!

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Horsham, PA Permit No. 90 575 Washington Lane, Jenkintown, PA 19046

Calendar Highlights Arbor Day Friday, April 27, 2012

Roo Fest and Alumni Day Saturday, May 5, 2012

Middle School Choral & Instrumental Concert Wednesday, May 24, 2012

Lower School Spring Concert Friday, June 8

Baccalaureate Sunday, June 10

Commencement Wednesday, June 13